Hotel planned next to Harry Potter location Alnwick Castle set for approval this week

The 47-room proposal, which includes the former buildings on Bailiffgate used by the Duchess’s Community High School, represents a £7.9million investment and would create around 45 to 50 jobs.

The application, for the conversion of numbers 2-8 Bailiffgate to form 14 hotel suites/apartments, as well as a restaurant and bar, is recommended for approval at the Thursday, January 21, meeting of the North Northumberland Local Area Council.

The Northumberland Estates is also seeking permission for the demolition of some buildings and the construction of a new four-storey block to the rear, with a terraced frontage along The Peth, to provide another 33 rooms, which would be connected to the existing buildings by a glazed link.

The bid includes the refurbishment of the former school gym building to create a series of new fitness studios.

Alnwick Town Council believes the development ‘will bring significant benefits to the town’ by bringing back into use buildings which have lain empty since 2016 and providing additional employment opportunities.

Its response added: ‘High-quality hotel accommodation in the town centre will reinforce Alnwick’s stature as one of the premier tourist destinations in Northumberland.

‘As importantly, at a time when the future of the local economy looks uncertain, such a significant investment will signal renewed faith in the future development of the town.’

However, the town council has objected to the application until ‘a number of specific concerns are adequately addressed’ – massing, parking and related issues, and access.

The existing entrance from The Peth will be widened to provide one-way vehicular access to the site, which will have 51 parking spaces within the former walled garden, with vehicles exiting via Walkergate; this access ‘could also serve any new residential development on land south of Walkergate’. The county council’s highways department has no objections.

In terms of the massing, the planning officer’s report notes this concern, but says that ‘it is, however, considered that the design of the proposal has been well-thought-out, with satisfactory separation distances to nearby residential and non-residential occupiers, with the vegetative coverage around the site also helping to protect amenity’.

The council’s building conservation team has objected too, concluding that the proposals would result in ‘less than substantial harm’, given there is ‘no evidence that a building on the scale of the proposed hotel is necessary to bring about the reuse of 2-8 Bailiffgate’.

In planning terms, the level of harm identified must be weighed up against the public benefits of the scheme, with the officer concluding that the holistic approach to the site, the reuse of a grade II-listed building, and planning obligations (£13,537 for the coastal mitigation service) outweigh the harm in this case.

Meanwhile, the response from Historic England states: ‘All told, the application presents a good balance between finding a new viable use for the listed buildings while creating a relatively large new building for this part of Alnwick Conservation Area.’

A planning statement submitted with the application in April 2020 explains that the scheme has been developed ‘following commercial interest being expressed’ by the current operator of The Cookie Jar, an 11-room hotel and bistro located just a couple of doors down on Bailiffgate.

The proposed hotel and gym would need a total of 45 to 50 staff – likely a mix of 20 full-time and 30 part-time roles (with a minimum of 10 hours per week for part-time staff).

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